Antony came to stay with us for a night, as it was his 40th birthday on the 13th! Goodness, where has that time gone, and how did I get to be old enough to have a 40 year old!!!
Birthday cake
We had a nice dinner together before he headed out for the evening, I did a slow roasted leg of lamb with all the trimmings. I had a cake for him for morning tea on his birthday.
He was off to play poker on Saturday afternoon, where the guys surprised him and gave him a new Phoenix (NZ football team) shirt and they also had a cake for him. Lucky fella.
A few days later and Roy was having a birthday, he is nearly twice Antony’s age!!! We headed up the road to Eatery Rothesay Bay for brunch, delicious it was too and one of the best coffees I’ve had in a very long time.
EateryBrunch for two
The following day we had friends come to visit, all are volunteers at Shakespear whom we have got to know quite well over the years. Skip & Mindy along with Alison & Selwyn have been stalwarts of the volunteer community at Shakespear, the backbone of what keeps the park running smoothly whilst taking a lot of pressure off the hard working Rangers. I had made a large pot of soup for lunch which was fitting for a dull day. And yes, I forgot to take any photos.
The following day, another wet miserable day, Peter & Wendy came over for lunch. We spent a very pleasant afternoon wiling away the day. And I even remembered to snap a photo.
Roy and Peter
I forgot to take a photo which included us ladies., oh well, next time!
We are housesitting in Rothesay Bay (next to Browns Bay in the North shore of Auckland) for my niece Sarah and her husband Shaun as they are off on holiday with their three teenage sons to Thailand and Malaysia. We have two cats to looks after, Charlie and Rosie, and a gorgeous house to relax in.
Rosie & CharlieMap of general area with Browns Bay highlighted. NB the blue dot indicates where the van is parked at Peter &Wendy’s, just a 14 minute drive away.
We quickly settled in and made ourselves familiar with our surroundings, hmmm, I’m thinking that the pool may get used a little if the weather stays warm.
The pool covered up
The house has been recently renovated so is pristine and sparkly, which also means we have very little to do apart from feed ourselves and the cats.
However, it does mean we can catch up on lots of little things that have been put into the “later” basket. I did take advantage of having a washing machine at hand and washed, Bluo’ed, dried and ironed, yes, ironed, all my sheet sets!! Do you remember Bluo?
It’s not available in NZ and hasn’t been for some years but I found some when we were in Melbourne a few years ago and bought a few bottles home with me. Funnily enough I also have a packet of blue bags in the cupboard, probably should be in a museum now. It does work though and now all our linen is beautifully bright white again, ironed and neatly folded into sets. The sets of sheets and pillowcases, get folded up and placed inside one of the pillowcases turned inside out, which when folded over you can use the pocket on the pillow slip to neatly fold over encasing the set neatly into a package. I took the opportunity of clearing out my linen cupboard and relining all the shelves. Yes, I know, I’m weird!!
We’ve kept ourselves busy going back and forth to the van, to measure things, pick up something we’ve forgotten or doing a few chores. Tax returns have been completed as well. In the midst of doing all this I had a wee panic as I couldn’t remember where I had safely stashed our passports, I found them, put them back where they belong then got back to the house to realise that I hadn’t checked the expiry dates. Oh I must have a photo of the passports somewhere….after a quick search of photos, emails and messages I eventually found the photos, and we both have relatively new passports. Phew! Note to self, put all travel document photos into an album for easy retrieval.
The pool man came to clean the pool one day, it almost looked good enough to dive into!!
Pool man cleaning the pool
We are enjoying our time here and getting to explore this area, the beach is at the end of the street and there is a great cafe at the top of the road. I’m sure the time will go all too quickly.
We parked up at Peter & Wendy’s in Albany for a week which has been lovely, we had plenty to keep us busy and a few days after we arrived, P&W arrived back from their Easter break away.
Parked side by side before the great washing of vehicles took place.
Peter washed his vehicles after being near the sea to get all the salt and sand off, whilst the water blaster was out we also washed both of our vehicles, then we watched Pete expertly backed his RV into the barn. I don’t quite know how he does it as the van is tucked into one corner of the barn avoiding all the other vehicles and obstacles.
We are here for a few more days until we go housesitting, but first we have to take the van into RVRepairs for an insurance assessment, you see there was a little bit of an oopsie a few weeks ago when a guard rail at an unmanned fuel station leapt out and caught the side of the van.
Ooops!
The van will be going in to be repaired hopefully soon, another thing off our list of things to get done over the next few weeks.
Peter & Wendy have been extremely generous in allowing us to leave the van with them whilst we are away, it’s good to know it’s safe whilst we are away housesitting and later when we go to England.
We enjoyed our stay with them and especially the peace and quiet however we will still see them over the next few weeks as our housesitting stint is only 14minutes away and there is bound to be bits and pieces we have forgotten to pack.
Arriving at Uretiti is somewhat akin to coming home for us it seems. We arrived in good time after leaving Kerikeri and once we arrived at the camp we got our frozens taken care of by the kind hosts which means we can relax a little and survive via chilly bin for a few days until the fridge gets delivered.
You will have to read the previous post for all about the fridge and it’s installation which seemed to have consumed our lives for the better part of a week.
After all the fridge work was done, there was a day of rest and recovery, besides, the weather wasn’t great so it was a good day to relax and watch a movie. The next day (Thursday), the fellas went out fishing for the morning whilst I had a good spring autumn clean up, they did return with fish as well which was great. Garry was leaving us that afternoon as he had family arriving for the weekend. It was also the start of the influx of campers arriving for Easter weekend.
Over the next day or so, the camp filled up with people, I don’t think we have ever been here when it has been so busy and I must admit that I don’t really enjoy being surrounded so many people, crowds have never really been my thing.
Good Friday and we were off to One Tree Point to visit Gary & Marg for lunch. It’s always a good catch up with these two and we always have a good laugh regaling tales. Of course narry a photo was taken.
Friday night we had a bit of a shock to our system, the temperature plummeted down to 8 overnight, it was a little chilly and we are not ready for cooler temperatures yet! At least the day afterwards is a clear blue sky day and it quickly warms up into the mid 20’s.
Saturday was spent doing a few chores that we’ve been meaning to do for ages plus pack up ready to leave Easter Sunday. We are heading back toward Auckland for the next few weeks until we fly out to England. We are also taking full advantage of the Brynderwyn’s being open for the Easter weekend and we chose to travel on Easter Sunday when we guessed the traffic heading south won’t be too heavy and before it closes again on Tuesday for them to complete the major roading repairs.
The Brynderwyn’s are a range of hills that form a natural boundary between Northland and the rest of NZ, we always feel that going over the twisty road to the top of the hills is like driving over a country border as when you reach the top and see over Bream Bay to Whangarei Heads you feel like you are in another country.
There was a steady stream of traffic heading north along the Highway, and it wasn’t long before the sign indicating that the road was open welcomed us.
Sign indicating that the road is openThe southbound lanes are blocked off with major repairs to the washed out road being undertaken.Major earthworks and millions of tonnes of earth have been removed already.Lots of earthworks still to be completed.
The rest of the trip went by very quickly and we were soon parked up at Peter & Wendy’s. Oh it’s so nice to be here in peace and quiet, the birdsong is very noticeable and joyful to hear. We are here for the next few days until the weekend and after that the van will be staying here as we are off housesitting for a couple of weeks, somewhere which is a new housesitting stint for us, we are looking forward to it.
The van had been booked in at Kaitaia Tractors to get a change of transmission fluid. We had topped the fluid up ourselves whilst at Tauranga Bay but Garry pointed out that it probably needed a complete change. It’s handy having someone who knows about such things, he could tell by the smell of the fluid on the dipstick that it needed changing – who knew to take a sniff at the dipstick? Speaking of dipstick, the ones in the van are incredibly long…as in around 5 ft long!
We were due at the workshop first thing Monday morning so we headed into Kaitaia on Sunday to get a few chores done; laundry, shopping, dumping, getting fuel etc but we also has another pressing chore to attend to. The fridge wasn’t working, in fact it had well and truly died. How did we know for sure? From the very strong ammonia smell that happened on our way into Kaitaia. We knew straight away what was the problem so the fridge was immediately switched off and windows opened. We need to get it removed as soon as possible for safety reasons. But we have a freezer full of fish as well as other delights. What are we to do?
We were spending the night at the RSA and on booking in there and chatting with the bar staff, they very kindly offered to put out freezer contents into their large chiller. Brilliant, what a very kind offer. With that dilemma sorted, after delivering the van to the workshop on Monday morning we headed back into town to try and a) find someone to cap off the gas and remove the fridge b) find a replacement.
We knew we didn’t want another 3 way fridge, that is running off gas/12v/240v, we wanted a straight domestic 240v fridge. Initially we thought we also needed to have installed another solar panel dedicated to the fridge with its own battery, inverter and controller however that was proving impossible to find someone to do all of that. I made contact with Wayne Hunt from Motorhome Solar, as he did all our upgrades of our solar system a few years ago, yes he said, we can comfortably run an inverter compressor fridge on our system very easily, the brands to go for are Samsung or LG, he tells us. Great, now I know what to look for I can do some research. But what brilliant service from Wayne, his continued customer service is outstanding and we can highly recommend his company for good, honest, reliable service.
The other factor was the cost, approximately $3800 for a new 3 way fridge plus fitting including the services of a gas fitter versus $850 for a digital inverter fridge which we could fit ourselves (with help). A no brainer really. With the type of fridge sorted, the immediate priority was to find a gas fitter to remove the old fridge. Again, our fingers did the walking and we found a gas fitter in Kaitaia who could come first thing Tuesday morning and cap off the gas. Valentino from North Flow turned up as promised, on time, checked out our gas system, disconnected everything and then proceeded to get the fridge out of the van.
Valentino and Roy trying to remove the fridge.Getting the old fridge onto the trailer, Valentino offered to take it to the rubbish tip for us, how kind is that?
With specifications in hand we let our fingers do the walking, actually we got Mr Google to help us to find the right fridge. We are limited on size of a new fridge as it has to fit in the recess we have, not such an easy task it seems as fridges are rather large these days. After an exhaustive afternoon spent googling, going to visit shops, suppliers and phoning all over Northland trying to find the right one, mostly being told that they are unavailable, or I have to wait 2-3 weeks, with one place telling me it was a 6 week wait, I finally found a very helpful man in Whangarei at Barrell’s 100% Extreme Store. He went out of his way to be helpful, checking on stock, checking other stores before going straight to the manufacturer. He could get one delivered to us by the end of the week, he told me, brilliant, he even gave a bit of a discount too.
We have to say that the people of Kaitaia were extremely helpful and friendly, from the many businesses we made enquiries with, to staff at the RSA, the café we frequented (Manaaki on 25), where the staff and food were fantastic, we cannot fault the locals from being exceptionally helpful and friendly.
Going without a fridge for a week is going to be a challenge, as well, we needed to keep those frozens frozen for a day or two. Next purchase, a chilly bin and salt ice. The bin was packed with the ice and the frozens carefully placed inside with the the lid closed and taped down, everything should remain frozen until out next destination.
Chilly bin fridge!
We had a one night stop in Kerikeri before continuing on to Uretiti DOC camp where I knew that the managers Steve & Adrien would allow us to put our frozens into their freezer. We just had to wait a few days for the fridge to be delivered, and as promised I had a phone call to say they could deliver it to us on Saturday morning.
Fridge has arrived and is going well running off our solar array.
Sunday afternoon Garry arrived to help us with fitting the fridge into the recess. Some adjustments had to be made because the new fridge is taller than the old one, plus it has to be secured in place. Child proof locks were also purchased to secure the doors so they don’t accidentally swing open whilst we are on the move.
Oh look at all those wires. Remnants of the original American wiring plus new wiring. It was all tested, what could be removed was removed, the rest tidied up and carefully stashed. New wall linings were installed to complete the tidy up.
Of course it did not all go to plan, and new plans were constantly evolving. By the end of Monday we had the fridge in situ but not secured, as the final problem had to be overcome.
The fridge levelling feet at the front of the fridge were the problem and with no wriggle room left at the top we had to come up with another plan. The biggest issue was the left hand foot was under the base of the fridge but the right hand foot was under the hinge of the door, the door sits outside the cabinetry. After a good nights sleep with many ideas running through everyone’s heads, Garry came up with the perfect solution, we needed a piece of angle iron cut to length for the width of the fridge, this could be mounted flush with the base of the fridge with a long bolt threaded through the angle iron into position with locking nuts to effectively become the adjustable foot, as an added bonus it meant that the fridge would be bolted to the floor securely.
Looking through the vent hole and doorway, yes that is the fridge inside the door.It looked like a building site outside.
A trip into Whangarei was required where we found a very helpful engineering company who had exactly the angle iron that we wanted plus they cut it to length and rounded off the edges. Perfect. Bolts were sourced and purchased and back we went to Uretiti. Holes were drilled, I painted the angle iron with rust proofing paint and once the paint dried it was all put into place. However, one of the bolts for the feet was too short to go through all the wood, so I had to go back into Whangarei to buy one more bolt. I was back by 5:30pm, bolt put in, angle brackets had already been secured to the back of the fridge and side bracing put in. It was all done. Woop woop.
We can’t thank Garry enough for all his help and able assistance, and it’s been a bit of a mammoth task as of course not everything went to plan.
Getting there, the final adjustments being made, Garry on the floor and Roy holding the fridge in place. Voilà, new fridge in situ, bolted down in every way possible. The old fridge was probably only as tall as the underside of the energyrating sticker, I now have much more usable fridge & freezer space.
We’ve now had the fridge running for a week or more and energy wise it is very very efficient, we get down to anything between 85% to 87% full overnight so we are thrilled with its performance. It is certainly going to save us some LPG usage with it paying for itself over a very short period of time. As well, it has ice making capabilities which has a certain member of the touring party delighted, lots of ice for his rum!!
The Vanninis' Manoeuvres 